Saturday, March 29, 2014

Why do Christians Sing in their Church Services? +

There is a belief in some Muslim circles that music is sinful.

Why do Christians sing in their church services? First, the book of Psalms shows that singing was part of the Jewish tradition.  There are 150 psalms in the Bible.

  Sing Joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him.
--Psalms 331

Jesus was also recorded to have sung.  On the day he was betrayed, it is written:

After singing psalms, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
--Mark 14:26

What about musical instruments?

The fourth psalm starts with this heading:

For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. A Psalm by David.

There are many other similar directives to use musical instruments like this one in Psalms.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Is Allah like is Creation?

I have heard it said that Allah is nothing like his creation.  We are like bacteria in comparison to Allah.

This is useful to say if your religion explicitly teaches against that God did clothed himself in a body and lived among us.
They argue like this: "Allah is so high above us, it is like an ant trying to reason with a human being".

But the fact of the matter is that we as humans enjoy having relationships with lower beings, say for example, dogs, because we do have common ground between us. 

However, we do not normally keep ants as pets.  Ants do not know or care about people.  There is nothing to fellowship with. 

Nor do we get any satisfaction from programming a computer to act like it is worshipping us.  There is no doubt a cell phone app for everything, but I have yet to see one like this.

So I say that the fact that God expect us to worship him must mean we are on a similar plane of existence.

Let me give another example:  When people engage in a competitive sport, like for example Chess, they always seek out somewhat equally matched opponents.  It is of no interest to beat an opponent in 3 moves or is there any satisfaction in an easy win.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Is Islam a Religion of Peace? Does Islam promote Women's Rights?

I wanted to comment on these assertions generally. 

Observe they are both positive assertions.  By this I mean they put the burden on the person making the statement.  If someone wants to make this point, they have to show that Islam is not neutral on Women's rights, but positively promotes women's rights.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Did Mary wear a Hijab?

Muslims also like to justify their position on women wearing a veil by claiming that Mary wore a hijab.  Is this really true?  We actually do not have any verses on what Mary wore.
Even if we did, that would not translate into a mandate for us 20 centuries later in a different culture and different climate, where people have the ability to turn on air conditioning, heating, and so forth.

But the fact that there is no verse that says what Mary wore shows her wardrobe is not that important.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Can God Die? Did God Die?

This is one of the more common arguments Muslims use, as silly as it is.
They say that Jesus is God, and when Jesus died, then God died.

The natural response is that there is more than one meaning to death.  For a doctor, it means time to finish the paperwork.  In a religious arena, death is just the start of a new eternal life.  If there were no such eternal life then all this discussion would be without meaning.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Trinity: Is Jesus "Begotten"? *

You may as well be the one who brings up the "only begotten son" subject.  Even with Muslims who I thought should have known better, I discovered that they thought that Christians believe that God had inappropriate relations with Mary to beget Jesus.  This misunderstanding is motivated by verses in the Quran and is also part of the prevailing cloud of anti-Christian polemics that Muslims spread.

The King James Version famously translates John 3:16 like this:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son...
--John 3:16 (KJV)

Modern versions translate this in various ways and usually have footnotes, but English-speaking  Muslims have focused on this phrase to justify this attack.

 One of the reasons we still use the KJV is that it is a word-for-word translation, and, since the words have not changed much, it is hard to improve on it.  And so, in this case they naturally translated the word "Monogenēs" as "only begotten".

However, it is really not that simple.  "Monogenēs" only occurs a few times  in the New Testament, and is rare in ancient literature.  You can't use a word that has unclear meaning, and  is not even part of the topic of this verse to justify a doctrine.

Muslims sometimes say there are thousands of sects of Christianity.  Indeed, it seems every possible way to interpret the Bible has been described, given a name, debated, and dismissed by one group and adopted by another.  But I am unable to find a sect that believed that God had carnal relations with Mary at any time in history.  Muslims haven't either.




Saturday, March 1, 2014

Is Adam Greater Than Jesus Because Adam Had No Mother Or Father?

This is just a quick observation.  Both Jesus and Adam had no earthly father.  However, Adam could not have been born of parents because otherwise he would not have been the first person.
Jesus is born of a virgin in Christianity because he already existed before he was born.  He was always with God.  He did not have an earthly father like us.  Islam does not explain why Jesus was born of a virgin unlike everyone else.

The Quran cannot be Translated

In discussions with Muslims, this situation sometimes arises when you make a good point:

You are asked aggressively, ‘do you know Arabic?’ Then you are told triumphantly, ‘You have to read it in the original Arabic to understand it fully’.


This causes us to ask some questions:


  • How can Muslims claim the Quran is a revelation for all people when only a minority of people worldwide understand Arabic?
  • The Quran quotes people who never spoke Arabic.  Isn't the Quran already in part already a translation in its original Arabic?